Rick Rubin

[mep]

How many of his albums do you own again? LOL.

I have no idea. I don't catalog my LPs by producer.

 

[Andre Marc]

Have you? You're the one that made the statement about Rick's system.

Hey Myles, I am no way saying Rubin is perfect. Not all of the records he produces are winners. Many are plain
awful. But I believe much of the criticism is based on jealousy. He became insanely rich by starting a record label
with 5 grand out of his dorm room. He has made some huge selling albums with artists there were stagnating. His weird
persona can be off putting. But that is the way it goes.

But to ignore his track record is absurd.

 

[Andre Marc]

I have no idea. I don't catalog my LPs by producer.

Then I am done with you, next.

 

[Bill Hart]

You guys just slay me. It doesn't fk'ing matter. Do you think RR gives a whit?

 

[Andre Marc]

You guys just slay me. It doesn't fk'ing matter. Do you think RR gives a whit?

Nope. Right now his man servant is bringing him his morning yogurt and granola bowl, while looks out over the beach in Malibu.

 

[MylesBAstor]

Hey Myles, I am no way saying Rubin is perfect. Not all of the records he produces are winners. Many are plain
awful. But I believe much of the criticism is based on jealousy. He became insanely rich by starting a record label
with 5 grand out of his dorm room. He has made some huge selling albums with artists there were stagnating. His weird
persona can be off putting. But that is the way it goes.

But to ignore his track record is absurd.

No one is ignoring his track record Andre. But not everything he touches turns to gold. Or as they said, even Michelangelo ruined a few pieces of marble.

 

[Andre Marc]

No one is ignoring his track record Andre. But not everything he touches turns to gold. Or as they said, even Michelangelo ruined a few pieces of marble.

Agree totally. What is confounding is that in the span of two and a half years, he produced an excellent sounding Neil Diamond, Audioslave, Johhny Cash, Pet Yorn, Avett Brothes albums, yet in that same period a crappily mastered RHCP, and the horrendous Death Magnetic from Metallica, which seems to have been a watershed moment in the loudness wars.

So how do we account for that?

 

[taters]

I saw the program, the performers were positively lousy.

If they had good audio engineering, they would still be lousy.

I typically change the channel when the musical guest comes on SNL.

Quite simply, none of them have any redeeming value.

Truer words were never spoken.

 

[mep]

I just looked at his discography and I only have a few of his recordings. He is heavy with rap and crap which I don't listen to. I see he has credit for the Adele-21 album which was also panned for the heavy compression applied. When Bill says "does it matter?" I guess I'm not sure in what way he is referring to. Does it matter if he makes LOUD records because he is being paid to make loud records? Probably not. Does it matter if he makes them loud because he wants to? Maybe not. Does it matter if he is criticized as long as he is rich and could care less what people think about him? I guess not.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

I lament the loudness war and yes, I believe it is detrimental to music. I also believe that people are noticing and there is a pushback against it...

I also read most of the thread. I agree with Andre posts.

For starters we are not the market Rick Rubin was aiming at... Do you think he would be as successful if he were targeting us? We would buy a few of the albums he produced. he would be left with just enough to take a taxi in Manhattan... We should be reminded that as a group our degree of relevance in albums (audiophile) spending is close to zero.

meanwhile the man produced a truckload of extremely successful albums some of them of great musical worth to me and I would say to millions of people ... We can;t say that much about most if not all audiophiles-aimed albums which for the most part sucks musically speaking ..Great sonics but poor music seems to be norm for many audiophile-aimed albums. Some less generous person would say "all", they wouldn't be be far from the truth..

 

[taters]

Rick Rubin is one of the very best producers of the past twenty years for a number of reasons, too many to mention.

The work he did with Johnny Cash alone, who was essentially never going to record again with out prompting from Rubin gets him into the RNR Hall of Fame. Same goes for the two albums he did with Neil Diamond.



He produced some of the very best records of the last decade including those by Audioslave, and far too many to mention.

The last two records he produced by the Avett Brothers, including their brand new Magpie and the Dandelion, are their very best.

As far as compression and loudness is concerned. The evidence shows he is not the perp. The Audioslave and Avett records and
the 50 or so others I own produced by him are not crushed to death and loud beyond comprehension.

Some of the records that did come out loud and crushed, like the Metallica and Peppers, were calculated decisions by the artists and
record companies.

Rubin owns a state of the art audio system wired with Shunyata. He knows what he is doing.

I always wonder with all his money why he can't get his beard trimmed. After all there is the shave in Beverly Hills where all the celebs go.

 

[MylesBAstor]

While on the topic of compression. This from the Analog Addict:

For a decade following its release in the autumn of 1982, Dire Straits' Love Over Gold could be heard in near constant rotation on the turntables of stereo shops everywhere, a quintessential audiophile "demo disc." Mark Knopfler & company have always released impeccably produced albums, but even by the band's high standards, Love Over Gold set something of a high-water mark in the pantheon of rock recordings, due in no small part to the creative engineering by Neil Dorfsman. The album offers a cornucopia of sonic delights: exquisitely sweet classical guitar, marimba, and piano, whiplash percussion attacks, and slashing bursts of electric guitar, all recorded with enough air and breathing room to allow the music to unfold naturally in a virtual space of believable scale and convincing perspective. Several tracks exhibit an astonishing dynamic range exceeding 65dB, which must have proved quite a challenge to Bob Ludwig during the LP mastering process. The original CD is marginally impaired by the limits of early analog-to-digital converters, but is infinitely preferable to the later Warner Remasters CD re-release, which shamefully desecrates the album's legacy with clipped peaks, prematurely attenuated note decay, a collapsed in-your-face presentation,

 

[mep]

Once again, old analog has more dynamic range than new digital. All dressed up and nowhere to go....

 

[Bill Hart]

I've never listened to Rubin's Johnny Cash records on vinyl if there is such a thing. Are they overly compressed?
Today, among other things, I listened to a side of Green Day's American Idiot (on vinyl). In the words of the engineer, they wanted it to sound bombastic. Is it compressed? Yep. Does it bother me? Not really, for what was a huge, mainstream punk rock record it was good. (Though I gather the drums were recorded in analog).
FWIW, I always liked the music of Love Over Gold better than Brother in Arms, but that's a personal thing.
At bottom, I guess the question is:
Is RR really responsible for, or a chief contributor to, the loudness wars?

 

[Bill Hart]

Once again, old analog has more dynamic range than new digital. All dressed up and nowhere to go....

Wrong battle, I think, MEP.

 

[rbbert]

While on the topic of compression. This from the Analog Addict:

For a decade following its release in the autumn of 1982, Dire Straits' Love Over Gold could be heard in near constant rotation on the turntables of stereo shops everywhere, a quintessential audiophile "demo disc." Mark Knopfler & company have always released impeccably produced albums, but even by the band's high standards, Love Over Gold set something of a high-water mark in the pantheon of rock recordings, due in no small part to the creative engineering by Neil Dorfsman. The album offers a cornucopia of sonic delights: exquisitely sweet classical guitar, marimba, and piano, whiplash percussion attacks, and slashing bursts of electric guitar, all recorded with enough air and breathing room to allow the music to unfold naturally in a virtual space of believable scale and convincing perspective. Several tracks exhibit an astonishing dynamic range exceeding 65dB, which must have proved quite a challenge to Bob Ludwig during the LP mastering process. The original CD is marginally impaired by the limits of early analog-to-digital converters, but is infinitely preferable to the later Warner Remasters CD re-release, which shamefully desecrates the album's legacy with clipped peaks, prematurely attenuated note decay, a collapsed in-your-face presentation,

2 simple comments. The SACD has excellent dynamic range and sonics. Measuring dynamic range on LP's has a number of potential technical snafus, and I wouldn't automatically assume that this writer did it correctly.

 

[puroagave]

I've never listened to Rubin's Johnny Cash records on vinyl if there is such a thing. Are they overly compressed?
Today, among other things, I listened to a side of Green Day's American Idiot (on vinyl). In the words of the engineer, they wanted it to sound bombastic. Is it compressed? Yep. Does it bother me? Not really, for what was a huge, mainstream punk rock record it was good. (Though I gather the drums were recorded in analog).
FWIW, I always liked the music of Love Over Gold better than Brother in Arms, but that's a personal thing.
At bottom, I guess the question is:
Is RR really responsible for, or a chief contributor to, the loudness wars?

cash's American recordings is an awesome album, there are three in the series that I know of, all-acoustic sets with dare I say "audiophile" production values. im kinda surprised you don't own it, I think its up your alley. I recently tried to buy replacements and was shocked they traded for 5x their orig cost. fortunately they'll be reissued on vinyl shortly. "Delias gone" puts a smile on my face every time I hear it.

RR was interviewed on NPR like last week and mentioned the Cash sessions. Cash was pretty weak by the last album and had to take breaks between singing a verse, sometimes 20-mins at a time.

 

[MylesBAstor]

2 simple comments. The SACD has excellent dynamic range and sonics. Measuring dynamic range on LP's has a number of potential technical snafus, and I wouldn't automatically assume that this writer did it correctly.

I'd assume this info came from the horses mouth.

 

[MylesBAstor]

cash's American recordings is an awesome album, there are three in the series that I know of, all-acoustic sets with dare I say "audiophile" production values. im kinda surprised you don't own it, I think its up your alley. I recently tried to buy replacements and was shocked they traded for 5x their orig cost. fortunately they'll be reissued on vinyl shortly. "Delias gone" puts a smile on my face every time I hear it.

RR was interviewed on NPR like last week and mentioned the Cash sessions. Cash was pretty weak by the last album and had to take breaks between singing a verse, sometimes 20-mins at a time.

The music's great but it was pressed on really, crappy vinyl and I often wondered if there was some digital processing. Plus there's some weird distortion on the album at various points (don't ask where because haven't listened to it in a while). Don't remember the 180 gram reissue being up to the original issue though.

Yes, Delia's Gone is a great song!

 

[puroagave]

The music's great but it was pressed on really, crappy vinyl and I often wondered if there was some digital processing. Plus there's some weird distortion on the album at various points (don't ask where because haven't listened to it in a while). Don't remember the 180 gram reissue being up to the original issue though.

Yes, Delia's Gone is a great song!

was it re-pressed before on 180? i agree the orig had many pressing defects. I saw an announcement the latest reissue is due next Feb.

In addition to the Cash records and Nevermind, I now own Tom Petty's wildflowers on vinyl (again) i had to pay 100 bones for the privilege from some dude in Greece of all places. I think its one of RR's best sounding records and was recorded at Sound city.